Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

We had a 1.30pm wedding, followed by canapés and drinks. 4.30ish we had our meal (3 courses) followed by a hot chocolate station and then evening food at around 9pm. We had hot dogs (proper sausages and veggie/ vegan options) and loaded fries. I didn’t think the evening food would go as well as it did but a lot went! The venue also provided little takeaway boxes for the evening food for people to take with them if they wanted to. I don’t think it’s a must but we did have separate evening guests and wanted to make sure they were fed too!

I do feel like people will expects some type of food, a finger buffet minimum. It’s like on Xmas day after that huge lunch people still find room for a small ‘tea’

Oof v bad plan. It's completely standard to have further food available if you are having an early dinner, as you are. This is usually something like a hog roast van, hot dog van, burger bar, pizza oven etc. Most guests will be ravenous by 9.30.

Not really sure why you have asked here then ?

I don't think I am unusual, in that after a "more filling than Christmas dinner" buffet, I wouldn't then have capacity for cheeses and home made cakes.
Why not have your buffet (and I'd still suggest by 4 at the latest if your wedding is 1.45, and you are no doubt instructing guests to be there 45min - an hour before), then bring out all this extra food - your "snack table", your cheeses, and your home made cakes at 8.30 / 9pm when people will be ready for food.

I agree. If the wedding is in central London, I would assume most guests need a good hour to get there so would be leaving home 11.30 / midday. They as most likely to have breakfast, get ready and leave therefore missing lunch. No one thinks of popping to Pret in their wedding finery!
The canapés may fill a hole after the wedding, but most are going to be hungry by 5.30. Then drinking and dancing..I'd want something to soak it up at 10ish.

I would struggle with your timings rather than what is on offer. If guests had to allow one hour plus for travel, time to have a blow dry, get dressed do their make up, I wouldn’t imagine they would want to risk spilling foot on their outfit before the ceremony or going into Pret with a wedding hat. It would be ok if they lived really locally or were in a local hotel and had a late breakfast or a light lunch. We got married at noon, as did DC. Then champagne reception and straight to sit down 4 course wedding breakfast, then change of venue at 5.30-6, drinks on the lawn, then a dance with an Italian restaurant doing the evening catering, offering a choice of dishes when the band had their evening break. So basically eating at near to normal lunch and dinner time.

If you are providing a decent meal starting at 5.30 - so presumably finishing up about 6.30 - I personally think that's fine if things are finishing up at midnight.

You could serve cake or bacon rolls or something a bit later on if you really wanted to but honestly I think most people will perfectly happy with what you have planned.

Sounds nice! I'm vegetarian and sometimes the choice is awful, or other people eat it! The best vegetarian food I had was at a Jewish wedding. Delicious.

@ScarlettOYara

We went with a kinda Middle East thing. Hummus, an aubergine spice spread, olives. My chief bridesmaid is vegetarian so she got to choose!

I don’t think you need the burger van personally. I’d have the dinner, speeches etc always takes some time. Then about 8:30 or so lay out a ‘snack table’ as you call it like this, tiered cheeses, crackers, grapes, maybe charcuterie, olives, pickles, maybe some hummus and crudités, nuts almost like a post dinner cheese course alone with the wedding cake. This will be perfect to soak up the booze and satisfy peckish dancers

It's the dancing too - an hour of dancing is essentially an hour of aerobic exercise 😂 And you want everyone (who can) at your wedding to be dancing, it means they're enjoying themselves.

I think so too - and I crave hot, savoury (and salty!) food after a few.

I got married at 2pm, then did canapés and drinks outside, then meal at 530, and a bbq van at 9pm. Honestly by 9pm everyone was starving again with all the alcohol and it being a long day.
If you don’t want to do evening food, could you instead bring out the snack table at 9pm and use that as the evening food?
You run the risk of people leaving early to get food on the way home, but if that isn’t something that bothers you then I really wouldn’t worry! You’ll have a fabulous day and probably not care about any of it on the day anyway!

I’d be really hungry by 10pm if drinking and dancing and not eaten since 5:30. In fact I might want to leave by 11 to get cheesy chips rather than staying until the end. I’ve never been to a wedding where they had no evening food, it’s expected

This. Dd got married couple years ago. Dinner was at 5.30pm so we had a load of pizza slices and burgers served up at 10pm. Glad we did because lots of people were hungry again. Drinking makes people peckish imo

Indeed! Neither cake nor snack table is proper food. The snacks generally go untouched.
A bacon roll (or slice sausage, as it often is here in Scotia) at 9.30pm goes down very, very well! Sets you right up for jigging to the pipe band, or for the final round of dancing (if the do is sans drums n' roses!) 😁

It sounds absolutely perfect to me.

(But I do not need to eat every 2 hours)

Plenty of food. No need for more IMO.

Have a fabulous wedding.

If you send your guests home so hungry they have to stop at McDonalds it’s all they will remember.

Realistically, none of them will eat after 12pm. 12 hours on a couple of onion bhajis and a buffet isn’t much, especially if drinking, and more so with free drink. 6pm-midnight is a long time to go without any food, and 5:30pm is ridiculously late to wait. Cake isn't proper food.

Don’t skimp on making sure the guests aren’t hungry. It’s what they’ll all remember and if they’re hungry they’ll leave early.

I wouldn’t go ‘hefty’ for canapés as it entirely defeats the object of them as being a little something to keep people ticking over as they sip on Champagne or something. Guests then won’t eat as much buffet (or perhaps be as excited about eating it…) so they may v well be feeling hungry at night.

Do you OP. My friend had a dry wedding and hoped guests would respect their wishes as it was for religious reasons - guests were leaving to get crates of wine in the end and some had hip flasks all day. Extreme example but you might find guests differ in opinion to you about it being like Augustus Gloop.

A 1:45pm wedding, guests won't have had lunch. I'd be ravenous waiting for the main meal that late. I like the idea someone else said of cheese, crackers and chutneys for the evening.

Yeah, I think you've got plenty.

Out of interest, what did you provide for vegetarians?

It sounds like you have quite a substantial 'snack table' for the evening, as well as cakes etc- there really isn't any need to provide any more food, I don't think.

Although, depending on what your main buffet consists of, you could always put untouched leftovers out as well (if there are any).

At my wedding, our timings were similar to yours, although we had a three course meal, and no-one wanted the buffet that appeared 2.5 hours later. I have vivid memories of my mum going round with two sandwich platters trying to coax people to take some home!

No, she says central London.

Is it Hampton Court or Kew Gardens? Or more central.

I would have evening food. I went through the same convo myself but ultimately it's best to over than under cater especially as people are kind of 'stuck' if they do get hungry.

The 'very filling' canapes will be devoured (a 1.45pm ceremony will mean lots of guests won't have eaten since breakfast), this will mean lots of the (very quickly to follow) meal will go to waste, and guests will be ravenous again at 8/9pm.